Women still make less than men two years after graduation

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Women still make less than men two years after graduation

Men who graduated from Canadian universities between 2010 and 2014 made a median amount of almost $6,000 more than women two years after graduating, a new Statistics Canada study has found.

The study, released Tuesday, analyzes the employment income of more than 900,000 post-secondary graduates under the age of 35.

It found that regardless of whether graduates received a college certificate, undergraduate degree or doctoral degree, their incomes increased between two and five years after graduation.

But major pay discrepancies exist based on study subject, level of qualification and gender.

Women with college certificates earned a median income of $30,400, while their male peers made $35,300. Women with professional degrees made $70,800, while men earned $72,800.

Pay gaps between men and women in Canada are not new. A 2017 study showed women between 25 and 55 made $0.88 on every dollar men made per hour.

Ashley Pullman, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa, recently published a study on the topic showing women were overrepresented compared with men in “non-standard” employment — like contract work and part-time employment — which pays less.

Pullman’s study suggests part of the discrepancy could be explained by women entering fields of study that lead to lower-paying jobs. She also concluded that the gap between men and women may broaden in the years following graduation.

The Statistics Canada study said women in the 2014 undergraduate university cohort represented 80 per cent of health field graduates and only 20 per cent of engineering and technology graduates. The gap was even larger for college programs (86 per cent women in health fields, 16 per cent women in technology fields).

Both fields had among the highest median pay two years after graduation, with men making more than women in both.

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